The invention is based on patent application Nos. 10-263043 Pat. and 10-263086 Pat. filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet accommodating device for accommodating sheets which are discharged from a sheet processing device such as an image forming apparatus (e.g., a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or a composite device formed of two or more of them), and also relates to a sheet processing system formed of a combination of such a sheet accommodating device and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A sheet accommodating device for accommodating sheets discharged from a sheet processing device usually has a tray for carrying the discharged sheets. Some kinds of sheet accommodating devices can accommodate the sheets in such a sorted manner that each sheet or each stack of sheets is shifted from the others.
In this sheet accommodating device, the tray is shifted or a mechanism for discharging the sheets onto the tray is shifted for arranging the sheets in the shifted fashion.
However, due to the structure wherein the tray is shifted or the mechanism for discharging the sheets onto the tray is shifted, the above sortable sheet accommodating device suffers from such problems that smooth and neat sorting of the sheets is difficult, and that the device scale is large.
In another kind of sheet accommodating device, discharged sheets are laid on a tray, and the sheets laid on the tray are moved toward the aligning portion opposed to a side edge of the tray.
In the above kind of sheet accommodating device, however, it is difficult to feed reliably the sheets to the aligning portion because the sheet discharged from the sheet processing device is partially or entirely curled due to an influence such as a heat and a pressure applied thereto from the sheet processing device.
In any of the conventional sheet accommodating devices described above, the discharged sheets cannot be smoothly accommodated in a satisfactory state.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a sheet accommodating device which can smoothly accommodate sheets discharged from a sheet processing device in a satisfactory state.
Particularly, the invention relates to a sheet accommodating device which can smoothly and neatly sort sheets, which are discharged from a sheet processing device, and can accommodate the sheets in a good state without requiring a particular increase in device structure.
Another object of the invention is to provide a sheet accommodating device, which can smoothly and reliably feed sheets, which are discharged from a sheet processing device, to an aligning portion even when the sheets are curled, and thereby can smoothly accommodate the sheets in a satisfying state after accurately aligning them.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a sheet processing system formed of an image forming apparatus and a sheet accommodating device for accommodating sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus, and particularly a sheet processing system which can smoothly accommodate the sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus in a satisfactory state.
The invention provides the first, second and third sheet accommodating devices.
(1) First Sheet Accommodating Device
A sheet accommodating device including:
a sheet-laid tray for laying a discharged sheet thereon;
a first transporting device for moving the sheet laid on the sheet-laid tray toward an alignment reference position; and
a second transporting device for moving the sheet or the sheet bundle aligned at the alignment reference position by the first transporting device selectively to first and second positions on the sheet-laid tray for sorting the sheets.
(2) Second Sheet Accommodating Device
A sheet accommodating device including:
a sheet-laid tray for laying a discharged sheet thereon;
an aligning portion arranged at an end of the sheet-laid tray, and provided with a sheet aligning space of a predetermined size in a sheet stacking direction;
a first transporting device for moving the sheet laid on the sheet-laid tray to the space of the aligning portion for aligning the sheet;
a guide member guiding a leading end, in the sheet moving direction, of the sheet moved by the first transporting device to the space of the aligning portion; and
a guide member moving device for moving the guide member from a sheet guide position for guiding the sheet to the space of the aligning portion to a sheet pushing position for pushing the sheet in a sheet stacking direction.
(3) Third Sheet Accommodating Device
A sheet accommodating device including:
a sheet-laid tray for laying a discharged sheet thereon;
an aligning portion arranged at an end of the sheet-laid tray, and provided with a sheet aligning space of a predetermined size in a sheet stacking direction;
a first transporting device for moving the sheet laid on the sheet-laid tray to the space of the aligning portion for aligning the sheet with the aligning portion; and
a pressing member for pressing the sheet in a sheet stacking direction within the space of the aligning portion.
Various features of the sheet accommodating devices described above may be appropriately employed in combination unless a particular disadvantage occurs.
Any one of the foregoing sheet accommodating devices may be combined with an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit forming an image on the sheet as well as a discharging portion for discharging the sheet bearing the image thus formed, and thereby may be used as a device for accommodating the sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus. The structures thus combined form a sheet processing system.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.